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SHOWMAN
came to town, Frohman and Belasco— this was before Belasco broke with the syndicate— opened a play called ''The First Born," using the same corpse-against-thewall notion. It was a better play and had prior claim on the idea. They announced that they would immediately send a "First Born" company to London. I thought fast and worked quick. Without announcing anything I bought "The Cat and the Cherub" and loaded it, actors, scenery and all, on a boat sailing four days before Frohman's company was to leave. It opened in London as a curtain raiser on the Saturday evening before "The First Born" was to open on Monday. The corpse made it an instantaneous smash success, while "The First Born" fell flat as a pancake because the ground had been cut from under it. Inside a week Frohman's company was sailing back home while "The Cat and the Cherub" stayed on for months, paying me £150 regularly every week— and incidentally making Blinn so conspicuous on the London stage that his subsequent brilliant career can be said to have started then and there.
But I hadn't had to wait for news from London to begin to consider the venture worth while. That came only a few hours after the boat sailed, when rumors that "The Cat and the Cherub" was on its way to London brought Belasco into my office, tearing his hair and whooping about how I couldn't do that— I mustn't do that— why in God's name had I done it? I let him rave as long as he wanted and then had them take him
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